The work of a public individual to disclose his assets is 1 of the tools to combat corruption. all year they are composed in Poland by dozens of different professions: from the president through ministers, parliamentarians, judges, prosecutors, soldiers, police officers, officials, local government officials, bailiffs, government staff of banks to Heads of State Treasury companies. Nobody knows precisely how many they should be – it is estimated that about 2 100 thousand. The analysis of these statements can be supported by a specialized tool, specified as Google Pinpoint (more in the frame).
The pharmacist will not aid to read Beata Szydło's statement
However, the problem is the form of making statements. They're mostly hand-written.
– For example, Beata Szydło's property message won't even decode an experienced pharmacist, as ironed by Patryk Wachowiec, legal analyst of the civilian improvement Forum Foundation. any time ago, he addressed the talker of the Sejm and obtained the answer that it could not be done.
– The question remains whether in this situation Mrs Szydło has fulfilled the statutory work – concluded Wachowiec.
The work to make a declaration of property is simply a preventive mechanics which requires twice to consider the consequences of not disclosing a possible conflict of interest or where a message may give emergence to a corruption case.
All statements made annually should check the Central Anti-corruption Office, but with specified weight and no tools – it is unable. As a result, the percent of verified can be calculated in promils and there are always suspicions why the services checked these alternatively than another people," experts say.
The main problem, however, is the deficiency of a unified legal basis for the submission of property statements, uniform printing and the required digital form of filling in and centralised basis, which would let for a realistic verification of the veracity of these documents.
– Digitalisation must not in any case mean scanning unreadable statements. It must be an electronic form which will simultaneously assist the completion of the statement, so that he cannot claim that he did not know how to fill out the statement, which is why errors appeared in it," emphasises Krzysztof Izdebski.
What do SN judges do?
We utilized the Google Pinpoint application to analyse the property statements of 86 ultimate Court judges, who were obliged to submit them for the past year (some of them have since this spring to this day passed to rest). These are not all statements by SN judges, due to the fact that respective of them reserved the content of their documents, and the first president of SN Margaret Manowska agreed not to disclose them to the public – the statements are so only at the disposal of the authorities of the SN and the Central Anti-corruption Office.
Google Pinpoint's analysis shows that the most SN judges have a Toyota (16 people) and Volkswagen's vehicles in second place – 15. The 3rd brand is Volvo cars with 11 judges. The 4th is Mercedes – 9 judges have it, and the 5th – an audi and suzuki – in the garage of 9 judges. The sixth place included Mazda and nissan (5 judges each), and the seventh was Honda, Ford and Opel (4 judges each). The eighth place came ex aequo Mitsubishi, Renault, Lexus, Seat and Skoda (3 judges each), 9th – BMW, Fiat and Chevrolet (2 judges each), and 10th – Citroen, Chrysler and Peugeot (one car of this brand revealed).
A twelve bills, tens of designs
– There are respective laws and dozens of examples of statements in the legal circulation – notes Krzysztof Izdebski from the property Foundation. – Moreover, sometimes it is hard to compare them with each other, due to the fact that erstwhile individual is first in self-government, then he jumps into the vacant seat in the Sejm, and then they elect him to the Constitutional Court, each of his statements will be in a different place alternatively of in 1 common base – the expert adds.
This would make it easier to put together and compare statements utilizing digital tools. This would besides improve the work of control bodies specified as CBA.
It is so appropriate to change the form of filling out statements into a digital form, to harmonise its form and scope and to include them in a single database, which is easy to analyse for citizens and for the services controlling the statements.
– It is crucial that in business we have the Single Control File and shortly besides the National strategy e-Faktur. This is simply a problem for entrepreneurs, but for the taxation – a large benefit, due to the fact that it can easy control the business. But there are no willing to make it easier to control the statements of politicians and others obliged to make them. There is no political will here," says Patryk Wachowec.
What a politician has and how much he owes
The declaration must disclose all the assets held and its estimated value.
It is about money (gold and another currencies) as well as real estate, movable property worth more than PLN 10 thousand, income from business, agricultural activity, technological work and financial obligations (credits, loans).
Failure to make a statement, not disclosing everything, or a faulty deadline, can consequence in financial punishment, failure of a position, or even a criminal case. However, there were very fewer specified cases, and if this happened, at least at local level.
The Stormy past of Acts That Didn't Create
The regulation of property statements has been announced many times.
– While I was inactive working in the Sejm's legal services, Marshal Ewa Kopacz, and a fewer years later, Marshal Marek Kuchciński commissioned work to prepare a draft of 1 bill with a catalogue of obliged to make a message that would solve these issues. But the subject was not realized – says Patrick Wachowiec.
Marek Biernacki had his task – inactive as a prominent politician of the Civic Platform. The case returned in 2018 with the public life transparency task announced by ministers Mariusz Kamiński and Michał Wąsik, which further expanded the ellipse of persons obliged to disclose their assets and liabilities. However, the subject did not scope conclusions again.
Catherine Batko-Toluć, Program manager of the Citizens' Network Watchdog Poland
There's confusion in property statements. Like the transparency of the judges' statements. This might make sense, but it is presented in the “cast” sauce. And any of the judges close to power were released from publicity. There was besides an thought that public property statements should be made by those active in tendering procedures for higher amounts, specified as temporary experts. What about the celebrity publicity of the political family? The thought has been compromised, creating absurd solutions.
We request to consider why we request these statements, how many of them should be public and why. The OECD has questions to answer. Is this about expanding assurance in the administration? Preventing a conflict of interest? Tracking decision-makers' wealth? I don't know what we care about in Poland.
